Category: Advertising

For the past couple of years I’ve enjoyed doing my own Super Bowl Ad Top 10 list. However, in October of 2015 my household cut the cord and has been without cable since. We’ve been Netflixing it for the most part, until we introduced a Roku at Christmas. Believe it or not, it was the Super Bowl commercials that pushed me over the edge. I ran out today and purchased an HD antennae for our television so I could continue my tradition. We are now proud owners of free, at times pixelated and spotty, cable.

This is also the first time since I’ve been doing this that I actually sat through the game. In the past, I DVRed the game then went back afterwards and fast forwarded through the game, making notes about the commercials. It was a bit rough – shooshing the kids during commercials and coordinating bedtime around the halftime show – but I saw all the commercials, from coin toss to Peyton’s endorsement of the ‘King of Beers.’

I just finished my Super Bowl commercial DVR experience (much like last year). I find myself wishing I had actually spent my time post Super Bowl watching the heavily advertised premier of Blacklist versus spending it fast forwarding through the game (with a break for the amazing half-time show) to watch all the commercials.

A couple weeks ago, this video started making the rounds on social media. I’ve been busy with client work, so I’m a bit late to the game with these comments. Better late than never – and what a better day for this post than Election Day? After all, it’s because we live in this great nation that FCKH8.com, as well as myself, have the right to freedom of speech… be it t-shirts, videos or blogs.

I can think of no brand more global and, at the same time, more American than Coca-Cola. For decades, their advertising has focused on the ideal of bringing people together. When the ‘It’s Beautiful’ spot aired during last week’s Super Bowl, I knew there would be lash back. What some see as dissonance, I saw as a celebration of just how far we’ve come. I saw an evolution of Coke’s famous ‘Hilltop’ – a vision coming together “in perfect harmony.”

This year I opted to skip the Super Bowl. As a former Coloradan, recent Tennessean and University of Tennessee alumna, I know I should have been glued to the set cheering on Peyton and the Broncos (Go Big Orange!) Based on social media check-ins and score updates from my husband, I’m glad I chose to DVR it instead. It sounded like a painful 4 hours – for football fans and advertisers, alike.

When I was in college, I went to the movies with a friend to see “Monsters, Inc.” It was a later showing (to avoid rambunctious kiddos). The scene where Sully says goodbye to Boo illuminated the screen, the almost full theater was silent. Then I, as well as everyone in the theater, heard a patron blurt out shockingly, “Are you crying?!”

When my Facebook newsfeed starting filling up with comments about a Guinness commercial bringing tears to the eyes of grown men, I had to check it out.

I’ve never found Kmart’s shopping experience, nor their advertising, desirable. They briefly peaked my interest in the late 90s with the introduction of Martha Stewart’s home furnishings, but that interest was short-lived. Kmart has piqued my interest again with the recent commercials from their creative agency DraftFCB.